Four Leaf Clover
by V'Kotik
Summary: A team of scientists aboard the USS Maverick finds an ancient settlement in 2372 and they find out why so many of them carry the names Tucker or Sato, yet most of them are part Vulcan...
1. Prologue: The Settlement

Prologue: The Settlement

 _Captain's Log, Commander T'Lara Tucker, Star Date 47653 point 3_

 _Our survey ship USS Maverick has arrived in the Eta Scorpii system to investigate the remains of an abandoned early Federation settlement believed to have been constructed and inhabited for many years by some of our direct ancestors. We have investigated early Federation history for many years in search of information about our fore-parents, most of which are believed to be original crew members of humanities first deep space mission. Since the current time would have been the year 2372 in their calculation of time, we are investigating events that took place over two centuries ago._

 _Unfortunately, such research is a rather laborious process with little reward in terms of results. Through genetic profiling and what little information was left after the destruction of the Federation's early central archive by fire in the year 2170 of the old timing scale, we have sought out and hired the following crew members in addition to the ship's standard crew:_

 _Myself – T'Lara Catherine Tucker, age 80 years, ancestry 80% Vulcan, 20% Human_

 _Charles Anthony Tucker VI, age 45 years, ancestry 60% Vulcan, 40% Human (personal annotation: While his anatomy makes his Vulcan ancestry quite obvious, his personality certainly does not)_

 _Mayumi Sato, age 30, ancestry Human_

 _Elizabeth T'Les Tucker, age 32 years, ancestry 57% Vulcan, 43% Human_

 _Mary Jane Sato, age 22, ancestry human_

 _As we speak there is a survey team on the surface of a planet designated Liberty IV, the ninth planet in orbit around Eta Scorpii, and the only Minshara class planet in the system. I admit to certain impatience in regards to hearing the results of the survey team's investigation._

-=/\=-

"As it appears, all members of the meeting are present," Commander T'Lara noted after surveying the attendance. "Lieutenant Nira, would you please provide an overview of the observations your survey has made?"

The young Vulcan female acknowledged the order with a nod and called up her first schematics.

"From climatologic simulations, we know that with a certainty of ninety-nine point seven percent the meteorological parameters of the planet have undergone little to no change over the last three hundred years. The planet would therefore have been most suitable for human and Vulcan colonization, if perhaps fairly warm for humans. Its average temperature seems to vary little all year and is comparable to the mean temperature of the _Shi'Kar_ province on Vulcan in early summer."

"Have there been signs of settlements."

"Indeed there were," the young lieutenant replied. "We have found dwellings in various states of deterioration. Most provided us with artefacts that hint at both Vulcan and human inhabitants, or of course settlers of mixed heritage. We also found relics that prove the presence of children. The most striking find was, however, that one dwelling was significantly better preserved than others. The explanation presented itself in the form of the skeletal remains of its last inhabitant."

"Now there's a find," Lieutenant Commander Tucker interrupted. "I guess you're havin' a lead as to who he or she was already?"

T'Lara could see the momentary confusion on Lieutenant Nira's face. Charles Tucker VI was on a temporary assignment to this ship and many Vulcans, especially full-blooded ones still encountered problems to adapt to a Vulcan looking male with blond hair, unusually blue-colored eyes, and a pronounced human accent.

"We are not aware of the exact identity of the individual yet, our team is working on it as we speak, but based on the genetic decay rate, we could establish that the remains are of a Vulcan female, who died on this planet approximately thirty to forty years ago most likely at an age in significant excess of two-hundred years."

"Hm," Charles Tucker intoned. "Let's say she made it to two hundred and twenty. That's not unusual for Vulcans these days. That would mean she'd been born sometime between 2110 and 2130 – she could well have been one of the original settlers, if that story is true, o' course."

"Lieutenant Commander, what you call 'a story', is a proven scientific fact," Commander T'Lara admonished him for his scientific inaccuracy. "It is already established that ancestors of ours have settled somewhere near what is now the edge of Federation space. The only question we need to find an answer for is whether or not this planet is the correct location and if the settlers were those we are looking for."

"I believe we can answer both questions affirmatively," Lieutenant Nira explained. "According to the genetic profile created by Doctor Pheral the remains we found are those of Lieutenant Elizabeth Tucker's third foremother. We can further deduce that the human who bequeathed the designation Tucker did produce offspring with at least three females. The third forefather of Lieutenant Elizabeth Tucker, the second forefather of Lieutenant-Commander Charles Tucker VI, and the fifth forefather of Ensign Mary-Jane Sato are one and the same man, in fact his genetic profile can be found in all of you to varying degrees, which means you are all descendants of a man, who, if the numbering scheme of Lieutenant Commander Tucker's forename was already used at the time, would have been called Charles Tucker III."

Silence descended around the meeting table.

"Bridge to Commander Tucker."

"Tucker here," T'Lara acknowledged, not entirely ungrateful for the interruption."

"Commander, we have managed to salvage the memory core of the best preserved dwelling."

"What are your findings?"

"It appears the settlers have kept an extensive log of their lives. We could so far identify at least five different authors, who have provided detailed descriptions of events, in fact _extremely detailed_ at times. The individual whose remains we found on the planet seems to have spent her final years assembling these logs into one monumental historic account of their lives."

"Ensign, please prepare copies for each member of the research team. It appears we have found our answers."

"Hold it," Lieutenant Commander Tucker interrupted against all protocol. "Before we go off and rummage around in our ancestors' diaries, we gotta give grandma a proper funeral."

There were affirmative gestures around the table, now that they had learned that they were all related much closer than initially expected.

"Ensign, did she put her name in somewhere? Something we can write on the tomb?" the 'human' Vulcan asked.

"She did, however, I am unsure of the veracity of the claim, Lieutenant Commander."

"Why? Did she write she was the tooth fairy or somethin'?"

"No, the female identified herself as T'Pau of Vulcan."


	2. Artistic Value

**Chapter 1: Artistic Value**

 **T'Pol**

I closed the communique and I was less than pleased. Thankfully I was alone in my quarters at the time, which meant none of my crew mates were present to witness my momentary lapse in controlling my emotions. Two years of thorough research into the nature of micro-singularities, an endeavor that had nearly cost the lives of Commander Tucker and Lieutenant Reed, after they had become stranded in a shuttle pod, had been for nothing. While I had been roaming the quadrant aboard humanity's first deep space vessel, the _NX-01 Enterprise_ , Dr. T'Leera had been working on her own publication on the matter and had 'beaten me to the punch', as Commander Tucker would undoubtedly describe this situation.

Although I was still intending to publish the results of my research, it would never receive the scientific attention I deemed it worthy of. Dr. T'Leera's research was incomplete and only poorly backed up by reliable data. Mine had the pertinent data, but in the end it would still be registered in history as the work that merely substantiated and backed up Dr. T'Leera's ground-breaking publication. It might be considered an unseemly emotional indulgence for a Vulcan, but I was less than content with being the second. As the ship's captain, Jonathan Archer, once allegedly said: Nobody remembers what a human called Buzz Aldrin said after setting foot on Earth's moon two-hundred years ago, because another human, Neil Armstrong had been the first to do so before him.

It was obvious that I needed a new matter to research, preferably one that my fellow colleagues at the Academy of Science would be hesitant to deal with. The obvious choice were studies of human behavior, as many Vulcans were more than reluctant to take a closer look at Vulcan's allies due to their openly emotional nature.

To my displeasure I found quite a number of publications on the matter in the Academy's database and most of them would have been described by Lieutenant Reed as 'rubbish', while Commander Tucker would have, undoubtedly, found a stronger profanity to dismiss them with. The ship's chief engineer has shown a rather surprising protectiveness towards me in this situation and I'm inclined to say that he would probably be even more upset than myself, were he to learn that my thorough research has been pre-empted by a publication the only virtue of which is having arrived before mine.

Despite the obvious deficiencies in the already existing publications, as none of the authors had spent even remotely as much time among humans as I had, I felt strongly disinclined to waste my time on writing yet more essays that merely corrected the inadequacies of other scientists' work.

What I did notice, however, was that two aspects of human culture and customs were completely absent from the database – the multiple religious beliefs among humans and their mating practices. Religion, while still practiced by a sizeable portion of humans, had lost most of its importance in the aftermath of Earth's devastating conflict called World War III. That fact was most likely the reason why most Vulcan scientists did not consider the topic worthy of research.

Engaging in research of religious beliefs was not an endeavor that promised a satisfactory result. Of eighty-three humans aboard, only seven were still practicing religious rituals and customs and the amount of potential data to collect was simply not enough to warrant a result I would consider worthy of publication.

That left the topic of human intimate practices. Of course, I would find more than enough willing subjects for such research, especially Commander Tucker, but there was a reason why nobody had ever engaged in that sort of research. When it came to their mating practices, humans were every bit as secretive as my own species and in addition they also seemed to be extremely uncomfortable conversing about it, as was evidenced by the captain's and Commander Tucker's reaction to my suggestion that the crew have their tensions eased on Risa. Of course the crisis of Ambassador V'Lar's flight from Mazar had pre-empted any immediate implementation of my suggested course of action.

There was only one realistic way to do thorough research on the matter and that implicitly meant that I needed to engage in sexual relations with human test subjects. Again, I had no doubt that Commander Tucker would need little persuasion to assist me with that kind of research. As ensign Sato once told me when offering her theory that the ship's chief engineer was romantically interested in me, all it would take was an invitation and I would be 'naked and on my back' in an instant.

Of course most fellow Vulcans would consider engaging in mating acts that are not meant for the purpose of procreation or the resolution of a male's blood-fever a deviant endeavor, but thankfully scientists were not this narrow-minded, understanding the need for such unconventional measures for the sake of scientific accuracy.

In a way I would merely continue a scientific family tradition. My foremother T'Mir had been the first female of our house to break with the tradition that females of our blood-line would become priestesses at the sanctuary on Mount Seleya. Instead, she had become the first member of our house to venture into deep space and she had been stranded on Earth over a century before the official first contact between our species.

Despite her insistence to the contrary, I did not believe that my foremother had spent that much time on Earth without becoming curious about human intimate customs. As my mother T'Les once told me, when not quite in control of her mental faculties during a heavy bout of _nu'ruu_ fever, my foremother had had such a need for intimate attention that if she had acted on her desires at any given chance, she would have doubled the number of family members.

My mother was not as promiscuous by nature, but she was the first and foremost expert of Vulcan mating practices and to gain that much knowledge, she had mated with over thirty different Vulcan males for scientific reasons. To preserve her privacy, those many intimate encounters with males of all kinds of physical stature, experience and age were of course classified, but appropriately experienced and esteemed scientists had access to these documents and none of them would have ever considered my mother's course of action deviant in any way. In fact, she had been praised for her willingness to engage in unorthodox methods of research. After all, unlike humans, Vulcans do not know the concept of casual sexual relations.

Especially one human was more than familiar with the concept – the ship's chief engineer. There had been a recent incident involving the heiress apparent of a planet called Krios Prime, and although I had no solid proof, I was quite convinced that commander Tucker and princess Kaitaama had engaged in sexual relations. The fact that we had found them 'half naked in a bloody swamp', as Lieutenant Reed had described it, made that a rather probable option.

What I did not understand at the time, was why the thought caused me to experience a wave of extremely disagreeable emotions.

 **Phlox**

I could not help it. I knew the width of my smile was often disconcerting for humans and much more so for the one Vulcan aboard, but seeing her stalk into sickbay, with her hands firmly clasped behind her back and a look of mild apprehension on her face told me that this was a case of Subcommander T'Pol being in need of an explanation for some aspect or other of human behavior and – like so often lately – it would almost inevitably involve one human in particular.

Those talks had often evolved into a most enlightening exchange of information, most unusual, considering that they involved a member of a race that was known for their almost excessive secrecy, but then the Subcommander was hardly your 'garden variety Vulcan' as captain Archer used to say.

"What can I do for you, subcommander," I asked, continuing to feed the various animals I kept to harvest medical substances.

"Doctor, may we take this conversation to your office? I need to speak with out about an issue of utmost private nature."

It was not exactly an unexpected request. For subcommander T'Pol more or less everything was of 'utmost private nature', but the insecure posture of the Vulcan told me that I was about to be surprised.

I pointed towards my small office at the back of sickbay and she followed me inside without as much as a verbal confirmation. A nearly imperceptible nod was all the answer such an invitation would get. I sat down and indicated that she should do the same across the desk. Now that privacy was ensured, the subcommander's apprehension lessened substantially.

"Doctor, I intend to study human sexuality in both theoretical and practical aspects and I would be grateful for any guidance you may offer."

At first I thought the subcommander might have joined Commander Tucker and Ensign Mayweather in 'playing pranks' on unsuspecting crew-members, but in that case her eyebrow would have been raised in anticipation of my reaction. She was apparently serious about this and professionalism demanded that I would be as well. After all, it would require some substantial deviation from what Vulcan considered proper behavior.

"A very interesting field of endeavor," I answered. "May I suggest you ask Commander Tucker for assistance? He appears to be the human with the most … interest in the matter, shall we say?"

She did not comment on my suggestion, but the slight blush made it obvious that the young Vulcan had considered that train of thought before.

"I was interested in medical details, anatomical differences or health risks, doctor."

"Oh, I would not be concerned about that," I explained with as little emotion as possible. "Humans and Vulcans cannot conceive without intervention by genetic engineering, so you don't need to be concerned about an unwanted pregnancy. Except for minor details, humans and Vulcans are anatomically perfectly compatible. The only noticeable difference is that the genitalia of most human males are slightly larger in comparison to the average Vulcan male. You should make sure that whoever you engage in intercourse with possesses the necessary finesse to avoid pain or even injury."

"Thank you doctor," she replied drily, her eyes cast down on her PADD to maintain a professional distance to this immensely intimate topic. "Is there any advice you can give me in regards to starting my research. As a Denobulan you might be best qualified to advise me on the matter."

I could not help the smile returning to my features. Commander Tucker would undoubtedly have added some comment on the relative promiscuity of my race at this point, no doubt in connection with his confusion that resulted from meeting my wife Feezal when we were in orbit around Dekendri III. The ship's science officer was of course immune to such temptation.

"I would not quite rush into the practical details, Subcommander. It would help to seek understanding of how humans approach the subject and what it means to them first. It would be prudent to start with research into the concept of eroticism in an artistic context to understand the importance of visual stimuli. If you need visual guidance on practical techniques, there is an artistic genre called pornography – although the term _art_ applies rather loosely in this context. There are pertinent recordings in the ship's entertainment database. They can be… volatile, even overwhelming or disturbing, but also… most enlightening."

Her delicately raised eyebrow, no doubt a means to express her curiosity, amused me. It was not hard to see why Commander Tucker spent a significant amount of time on getting such reactions out of the ship's resident Vulcan. It had to be admitted – the subcommander was an exceedingly attractive member of her species and her habit of communicating her thoughts by eyebrow-movements made her only more endearing.

"Thank you doctor."

"One last advice, subcommander," I interrupted her attempt to stand up and leave. "I urge you to consider the impact of your research on whoever you ask for assistance. While most heterosexual males will be quite willing, even enthusiastic, about the prospect of engaging in intercourse with an attractive female, you must make sure they understand the purely scientific purpose of the endeavor. They might misinterpret the activity as romantic interest or even develop an emotional attachment to you."

"How can I prevent any… repercussions?"

"Do not engage in anything intimate with a human partner if you have the impression that he or she is not fully aware of the purely scientific nature of the encounter. Even more care has to be taken with a partner, who is attracted to you. Humans strictly distinguish between casual intimacy for the purpose of giving and receiving pleasure and sexual relations to express their affection. They even distinguish between these two aspects in their language."

I returned her nod of understanding and watched her leave. I was surprised that the Subcommander had not been interested in the topic before. My theory that she had experimented with human sexuality already had obviously been false.

-=/\=-

 **T'Pol**

 _Scientific log, Subcommander T'Pol, October 2_ _nd_ _, 2152 human time scale, encryption code 4-9-1-5-1-7-7-5-5-8-7-9-3-Theta_

 _According to the advice of Doctor Phlox I have started my research with the definition of Eroticism. The information on the subject in the human database is disagreeably vague and ambiguous, and Ensign Sato could not provide an explanation that would satisfy the standards of a scientific description._

 _A constant in my findings is that the majority of artistic depictions, may they be drawings, statues or recorded images, almost exclusively present the subject in a partial or complete state of undress. In many cases, the subjects are shown in poses that serve no other purpose than to emphasize (in rare cases) primary, but in most cases secondary sexual characteristics. Especially the female bust seems to fascinate humans a great deal. According to an article in the Denobulan research material provided by the ship's medical officer, there is a third option of invoking Eroticism by showing subjects in suggestive or semi-transparent attire, leaving the exact shape of the subject's body a matter of speculation in the mind of the beholder._

 _A human adage says, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". According to Ensign Sato's explanation, there is no clear quantification for the attractiveness of a female. I shall therefore conduct an experiment to determine the attractiveness of my own physique in comparison to human females of different builds. This experiment shall be registered as "Experiment E-1"._

 _Purpose of the Experiment: Evaluation of different ideals of attractiveness in correlation to state of dress or undress, physique and sexual orientation._

 _Participants:_

 _* Doctor Phlox, Chief Medical Officer, assistant,_  
 _* T'Pol, Subcommander, Science Officer, visual exhibit A (classification: build – trim, bust – medium)  
* Sato, Ensign, Communications Officer, visual exhibit B (classification: build – slight, bust – small)  
* Hess, Lieutenant, Deputy Chief Engineer, visual exhibit C (classification: build – muscular, bust – large)  
* Noriega, Ensign, Assistant Weapons Officer, visual exhibit D (classification: build – portly, bust – medium)_

 _The following males have been authorized by the participants to observe their recordings regardless of their state of undress:_

 _* Archer, Captain  
* Tucker, Commander  
* Reed Lieutenant  
* Mayweather, Ensign  
* Taylor, Lieutenant  
* Rostov, Crewman  
* Novakovic, Crewman_

 _Execution: Each female participant will be recorded three times in identical poses:_

 _*`Recording One: Standing casually, attire: human suggestive clothing ('lingerie')_  
 _* Recording Two: Sitting on chair, attire: lower half of clothing worn in Recording One, torso bare.  
* Recording Three: Lying on back, bust emphasized, vulva concealed by bent leg, attire: none_

 _Each of the male participants will be presented with all twelve recordings and will be required to evaluate the relative attractiveness on a scale of zero to one-hundred. They will also be required to provide a short description of which detail they perceive as most attractive and most unattractive._

 _Length of Experiment: Forty-eight hours._

-=/\=-

 **Trip**

For want of a better idea, I paced back and forth in front of the subcommander's quarters. As if it had not been weird enough to comment on the naked bodies of fellow officers, T'Pol now wanted to 'discuss the findings' with me. Had I been too honest with my evaluation, for instance how cute Hoshi's firm little butt looked? Had I been perhaps too obvious in my praise for T'Pol's spectacular body? Or was she going to chew me out for the less than flattering, but honest and civil comments about Noriega's chubby frame.

What was the point of conducting such an experiment if the answers were expected to conform to a certain expectation? Noriega, who was funnily nicknamed "Tiny", was fun to be around and she didn't really give a flying expletive about the fact that she had a few pounds too many on her frame, but to most males of the species, her unclothed body simply didn't look as appealing as for instance Anna's muscles or Hoshi's petite build.

And that was nothing in comparison to T'Pol. Heavens to Murgatroyd, God couldn't have made a body like that, even on a very good day. The very image of T'Pol wearing thigh-high stockings, held in place by a garter belt and lace panties that redefined the meaning of skimpy, and more importantly, nothing but an elevated eyebrow north of the garter had made my night an endless sequence of very graphic dreams.

Again and again she had appeared in my dreams, gloriously topless, with her large breasts on proud display. Their shape and firmness appeared unnatural at first for such a large rack, but they were designed to withstand almost double the ship's artificial gravity. Her green blood that gave her large nipples a bronze-ish tint perfected the picture of a woman so hot and beautiful, I would probably still remember it if I were to succumb to Alzheimer's. The disease strong enough to erase that picture from my memories hadn't been invented yet.

I was probably not alone in that predicament. I wondered if Hoshi had any idea what seeing her gorgeous body without clothing had most likely done to Malcolm's dreams.

Finally, I collected my frazzled nerves and pushed the doorbell. I entered carefully when T'Pol called out for me to do so. Nothing had prepared me for what I encountered when I went in.

"Son-of-a-bitch!"


	3. Comparative Posterior Analysis

**Trip**

 _Alright, this really takes the cake_ , I thought to myself. If she was going to chew me out for something, she had a very interesting idea of how to go about it. My attempts at not starting to dribble became more and more desperate. T'Pol looked at me as if it was completely normal that she would meet me in her quarters wearing _absolutely nothing_ in regard to clothing. She was buck-ass naked.

"If you would close and lock the door please, Commander?" she asked me without so much as raising an eyebrow about my stunned reaction.

Although my mind was currently hazy at best, I somehow managed to find the button and the door closed. In an unexpected feat of coherence, I even managed to find the lock button. I turned around and savored the sight before me.

T'Pol stood – her hands clasped behind her back and if her patient look was anything to go by, she actually wanted me to ogle her. Now that was something I had absolutely no problem with. I couldn't pry my eyes away from her amazing naked frame anyway.

Most of what I saw wasn't new to me as I'd had spent way more time than strictly necessary observing her three recordings from the experiment, but seeing her for real, right before me, was an entirely different matter, and one that caused a rather embarrassing pressure against the fabric of my uniform in a lower region of my body.

T'Pol wasn't as muscular as Anna, but it was obvious that there wasn't a single gram of excess fat on her body, except where it belonged – in her spectacularly gorgeous boobs. That was of course a matter of speculation. Considering how proudly her breasts towered over her chest, defying gravity, they could just as well have been made from tritanium. Most likely it was the lower gravity that made them look this firm, despite their size.

The one region I hadn't seen before was the love triangle between her legs and I couldn't see much at that moment either since – to my surprise – it was covered by a thick bush of brunette curly hair. Who would have thought that the efficiency and logic obsessed Vulcans would retain a patch of hair that had lost its evolutionary purpose when we'd stopped sniffing each other's bottom to find a suitable mate. Finally, I realized that I must have had ogled her for several minutes and it would perhaps be a good thing to say something – _anything_.

"I-if I may state the obvious, Subcommander – you're sort of n-naked."

It sounded completely lame, and I stammered like a fifteen-year-old five minutes before losing his virginity to his long-time crush, but it was just about the only thing my dazzled brain could come up with at the time, all the remaining capacity was hogged by trying to comprehend how someone could look this amazing.

"Most perceptive, Commander; your vision is apparently unimpaired."

Such a dry zinger – and she had developed a habit of delivering quite a few of those lately – would normally have been a source of much amusement, and most likely a reply in kind would have been delivered, but at the moment I was too stunned to react in my usual manner. After the experiment had been concluded, the pictures had been locked away in the encrypted storage of the science department, which was why I had not thought I'd ever see this spectacularly gorgeous and simply perfectly shaped body without a uniform again – and now she stood before me in her birthday suit and this time she didn't even bother to hide _anything_.

"I-if it isn't too impolite; may I ask _why_ you're naked? Not that I would complain..."

She regarded me with a look that would have seemed completely empty and devoid of emotion to most of the crew, but I had spent enough time with her to know that she was somewhat amused, at least as amused as her Vulcan heritage allowed her to be. The slightly cocked right eyebrow gave it away. Not even trying to hide her body while I was still staring at it like the village idiot, she provided an answer.

"I had a certain suspicion about your most expressive evaluation of my recordings in the experiment. I wanted to make sure that you were really that substantially impacted by the sight of my unclothed physique and not just following a false sense of obligation to compliment me."

I stared at her blankly. If I hadn't known better, that sounded like a very Vulcan (read: roundabout) way to say she needed confirmation that she was really as attractive as I had written in the form that came with the experiment. Hell, for all it was worth I had even exercised an understatement that would make Malcolm proud while writing my appraisal.

"In addition," she continued, and I had to grin a bit when I saw a slight greenish blush appear on her cheeks. "I noticed during the recording of the images and the immediate aftermath that not wearing clothing was a somewhat… invigorating sensation. Unfortunately, the ambient temperature is too low for a prolonged state of undress. Temperatures below twenty-nine degrees centigrade appear cold to Vulcans after a time."

"Nothing easier remedied than that," I said with grin, happy to be back in my element. I pointed at her wall-mounted panel with the environmental system controls. "May I?"

 **T'Pol**

There was no doubt that I would need a sizable amount of additional time for meditation that evening, due to the amount of unknown and quite potent emotions our encounter had stirred in my mind. I would never have exposed myself to anyone but Commander Tucker, and just as I had hoped for, his strong reaction to my appearance had caused a significant amount of arousal in myself. I began to understand what Ensign Sato had referred to when saying that being visually appraised by a trustworthy male could become addictive.

The ship's young communications officer had played a vital role in my finding out how agreeable a sensation it was to divest myself of all clothing for the sole purpose of personal comfort. Undressing completely for any purpose other than a bath or a medical examination was an emergency measure on Vulcan. Those who did not have environmental controls in their homes often had to undress at the height of the yearly summer drought to avoid heat stroke. I could speak from experience as I had always refused to remove my clothing as a youth and had suffered several heat-strokes as a result, much unlike my mother, who was rarely wearing any kind of attire at the height of summer season. In a way it was ironic that it would take me sixty-three years to see the logic, in an environment that no longer necessitated such measures.

The discovery had come entirely by chance. Doctor Phlox, in his capacity as my assistant in this experiment had visited all participating females in their quarters to produce the recordings. At the time when he visited me, I had been talking to Ensign Sato. Instead of leaving, however, the Ensign had observed the recordings of my postures and having fetched her own items of attire, her recordings had been made in my quarters right after mine, which had saved the doctor another lengthy walk to the other end of the ship.

Having posed completely undressed for the third recording, the young linguist had not donned her attire again, choosing to remain unclothed with my permission. Apparently she rarely wore clothing in her own quarters for reasons of personal comfort. Felling somewhat 'overdressed', as Commander Tucker would say, I had simply divested myself of all clothing as well, which led to the discovery of how comfortable such a state of undress was, although I have to admit that the first minutes had been awkward.

While I had been distracted by my own thoughts, Commander Tucker had been working on enabling my environmental controls to be adjusted to higher temperatures than the default settings allowed. He kept looking at me in a way that he most likely perceived as very surreptitious, but for a former operative like me his frequent glances at my unclothed physique were hard to miss and I realized I found his attention and obvious appreciation of my appearance most agreeable.

"Commander, are you willing to assist me in interpreting the results of the experiment?" I asked while he started to reassemble the panel. Apparently he was nearing completion of his work.

Upon hearing my question, he put his tools back, which he seemed to carry everywhere in various pockets of his uniform. Why he wiped his palms clean on his uniform when he was supposed to provide a verbal answer eluded my understanding.

"I'm not sure the other guys would want me to know what they think about the girls. Malcolm told me, so we can discuss that, but I'm certainly not in a position to discuss the Capn's beauty ideals."

"All participants have agreed that the results could be discussed with other participants. The only restriction is that none of the females will be informed of who provided which comment, with the obvious exception of me of course."

"Alright, what do you want to know?" he asked me and he returned to finishing his work on my environmental controls. I tapped the record button on my PADD to save our upcoming conversation for later analysis.

"Seven months ago, you and Lieutenant Reed were rescued from shuttlepod one and both of you were inebriated," I told him. "When the Captain ordered me to investigate the shuttle's voice recorder, I overheard a remark made by Lieutenant Reed that hinted at a fascination with my posterior. I believe the exact phrase was: 'She has an awfully nice bum.'"

He emitted a groan, normally a sign of discomfort or embarrassment. "Please don't tell him you know that. He's stuck-up enough as it is."

I nodded but saw no logic in providing any comment on his request.

"However, in the experiment, Lieutenant Reed commented on my bust instead of my posterior, and he identified the derrière of Ensign Sato as superior to mine. Are such preferences subject to frequent change or has my behind deteriorated in any way?"

To my surprise, he turned around and he was clearly amused. "He likes Hoshi's tush the best because it's Hoshi's - simple as that. Malcolm is hopelessly smitten with her. She could have three black teeth and he'd still say she has the nicest smile. That's where your experiment fails to factor in the element of love. We have a sayin' – love makes you blind."

"Your perception of attractiveness changes when a male develops affection for a female? I believe that is what the word 'smitten' means, does it not?"

The Commander did not answer immediately. Instead he finished his work on the environmental controls after announcing a short delay to his answering my inquiry. The logical explanation was that his explanation was of a lengthy nature and he did not wish to present it in a state of alternating between his work and concentrating on our conversation.

Once he had finished his work and the temperature rose, which I acknowledged with a grateful nod, I indicated him to take a seat and noticed that he took the time for another appraisal of my unclothed body. He had now been able to observe me for seventeen point six minutes and his fascination with my physique appeared to be unchanged in its intensity, although his initial confusion and surprise seemed to have been replaced by a state of relative contentment. I memorized these thoughts for later recording.

"Look," he started his explanation and I noticed an even more pronounced urge than usual on the Commander's part to support his speech with hand gestures. "I'm not a behavioral scientist, but I would bet that all of the guys in that experiment had a unique taste in whom they found most attractive and why."

"There were indeed no major similarities in any of the results," I agreed, but then I remembered that I was violating a major custom of human hospitality. Immediately seeking to correct that oversight, I offered what I should have offered much earlier.

"Before we continue, do you wish for a refreshment?"

"Well, I could use a bit of water or something, now that the temperature in here starts gettin' quite cozy."

I stood and walked to my chest of drawers. With interest I noticed that the inevitable movement of my bust – his main focus when he observed me – caused his pupils to dilate slightly. Movement could apparently increase the visual impact of a body parts' shape on the perception of a human. It would be an explanation for why many depictions of nude human females involved lifting or slight squeezing of their own bust.

His reaction turned to a mixture of positive surprise and contentment when he realized that the offered refreshment was a moderately alcoholic beverage called 'beer', a beverage I had seen him consume with a certain preference at the few festive occasions the crew had had in the past nineteen months.

"I can unfortunately not offer a glass or mug," I apologized, but his amusement indicated that the absence of such a container was apparently not a violation of hospitality etiquette.

"Don't worry, I was a bottle-baby," he explained with obvious mirth radiating from his mind. He raised the bottle in salute and enjoyed the offered beverage straight from the bottle. I doubted severely that the current situation was in some way indicative that he had been an early weanling in his infancy. In fact, it was most likely a fabrication and the Commander's usual way of indicating unconcern by using a colorful analogy.

"Anyway," he continued, remembering his task of providing a theory to answer my question. "There is a reason that different guys have different tastes. If we'd all be the same, you'd end up with millions of guys going after the same girl or all girls only being interested in one guy. Even as an engineer I can see that such an idea wouldn't be the most effective reproductive strategy."

His last statement was of course logical. The different interpretations of attractiveness seemed to be part of an evolutionary strategy.

"But if the relative attractiveness of a human's physique determines the potential selection of a mate, why did Lieutenant Reed's preferred shape of posterior change? There are distinct differences in shape between Ensign Sato's derrière and mine."

His statement "I can't believe I'm discussing Hoshi's butt with our science officer", which was muttered in a mixture of abashment and disbelieving amusement, was apparently not meant for conversational purposes and I waited patiently while he consumed some of the beverage in a bid to gain time for composing himself.

"It's not a solid scientific theory," he qualified his impending explanation preemptively. "But that's how it worked with me. First of all, it's not only the body or how much or little clothing it is concealed with. The character and your relationship to the other person matter, too. I mean, you know that I've described you as the most attractive one."

I acknowledged that fact with a nod.

"I've known you're the most beautiful creature I've ever seen since I first saw you. Just a couple days later, when we got back from Rigel X, we ended up in decon, rubbing stuff all over each other's bodies, so I got an even better idea of what you look like. The thing is though, had you done that experiment back then, I'd probably have said Anna was the most attractive, because it isn't only the body, but the personality as well. Back in the day I didn't know the first thing about you and your unemotional behavior was a huge turn-off, as it made you appear arrogant and condescending. Anna is easy-going, a good friend; that made up for the divergence of her body from my idea of a perfect woman. That make sense?"

"You are trying to say, returning to the topic of Lieutenant Reed's preference, that in theory my derrière is still closest to his ideal, but her personality in connection with her physique and his obvious affection for her make Ensign Sato more attractive to him and he therefore assigns less emphasis on conformance of her physique to his theoretical ideal."

"Couldn't have said it better," he explained, having finished consuming his beverage.

"Your explanations were most helpful, Commander," I offered with sincere gratitude and decided to discuss another idea for an experiment. "Are you gifted in art forms like drawing or sculpturing?"

"Gifted is a bit much, I liked drawing sketches when I was younger, and they usually turned out quite okay. I still do it when preparing engineering reports, but these days it's mainly engine parts I'm drawing."

"Would you be willing to produce drawings in an experimental context to further assist in my research?"

"Sure, no problem."

"Then I would like to ask you to return here on Tuesday nineteen-hundred or to give me advance notice if the time has to be changed."

"No problem," he repeated and pointed at the empty bottle. "Thanks for the beer, much appreciated. Want me to dispose of it?"

"That would be most thoughtful. Thank you for your assistance."

This conversation had indeed been enlightening not only as far as my studies were concerned. It had given me a most interesting insight into the mind and character of Commander Tucker. He was a most intelligent individual and apparently he was quite willing to speak candidly about his intimate thoughts when he could justify doing so as a scientific endeavor.

Most fascinating…


	4. Drawing Conclusions

_**T'Pol**_

 _Scientific Log, Subcommander T'Pol, October 2_ _nd_ _, 2152 human time, encryption code 4-9-1-5-1-7-7-5-5-8-7-9-3-Theta_

 _In an attempt to validate hypothesis H-9a, I have devised comparative experiment E-2_

 _Purpose of the Experiment:_

 _Evaluation of biological reaction of a human male in correlation to the relative attraction to a female._

 _Participants:_

 _-Phlox, Civilian, Chief medical officer, medical data acquisition  
-_ _T'Pol, Subcommander, Science officer, visual exhibit A, classification: highly attractive to study participant (ref. Experiment E-1)  
-Sato, Ensign, Communications officer, visual exhibit B, classification: attractive to study participant (ref. Experiment E-1)  
-Tucker, Commander, Chief Engineer, study participant_

 _Execution:_

 _To evaluate the biological reaction of the study participant to the relative attractiveness of a female, select biological parameters will be monitored while producing a visual likeness of a female subject. The monitored parameters are: heart rate, blood pressure, neurological activity in brain regions pertaining sexual stimulus, blood flow in corpora cavernosa._

 _Commander Tucker has consented to conduct the experiment in an unclothed state to facilitate easier monitoring of vital data. In order to avoid interference with the data by the impact of being exposed to the view of the subjects he shall portrait, he will conduct his work behind a privacy screen while the image of the subject is directly transferred to a screen in front of him._

-=/\=-

Judging by the mild protestations of Commander Tucker I had heard from behind the privacy screen when Doctor Phlox attached the various sensors, I surmised that he was not entirely comfortable with the situation, most likely because at least one sensor had to be attached to a most intimate region. What I had noticed quite early into my research was the fact that human males were extremely discomforted by experiencing penile erection in all but the most private setting, despite the fact that it was an involuntary reaction of their bodies to visual or tactile stimuli.

At this moment, Ensign Sato was kneeling in a typical pose considered 'erotic' by humans. Three cameras were directed at her from different angles, which would allow Commander Tucker to select different perspective views on the ensign's body to facilitate a satisfactory artistic result.

Convincing the ship's communications officer had been surprisingly easy. Apparently, like all female participants in the first experiment, she was sufficiently confident in her appearance to present herself for visual appraisal in a state of nudity. Obviously she was also sufficiently comfortable in Commander Tucker's presence.

In fact, I had noticed a certain familiarity between my two fellow officers and I wondered if there was perhaps a history between the two humans. It would not be too much of a surprise. It was known that Commander Tucker was not averse to engaging in casual intimate relations and ensign Sato was an exceedingly attractive female. In the combined scores of the first experiment, her combined score had been only marginally lower than mine.

The ship's chief engineer had assured me that he would need no longer than one hour to produce a drawing and therefore the young linguist had expressed confidence in her ability to hold a steady pose for that period of time. Of course I would not face any difficulties with that. Due to our need for meditation, Vulcans were trained to hold a pose for long periods of times without moving.

I could hear the soft impact sounds whenever he touched the digital canvas with the electronic pen. The Commander had expressed a desire to use genuine paper and a pencil, however, the quartermaster had been unable to provide the necessary materials. While that was met by disappointment on behalf of Commander Tucker, it allowed me to observe the process from outside the privacy screen.

My monitor showed the vital data on the right side and the development of the drawing on the left. Apparently the Commander was using a fairly interesting method, which started with a series of basic shapes – circles, ellipses and lines, which at best represented ensign Sato's approximate proportions and step-by-step he started to refine the details until, after nineteen point four minutes, he had produced a surprisingly detailed and accurate outline of the ensign's body, however it was completely hollow and I could see that he employed the same refining method for the various details of her appearance, like the young ensign's face, for instance.

I observed the vital data and noticed a distinct increase in heart rate, when the Commander started adding the outline of Ensign Sato's bust. Despite the fact that the bust of the ship's communications officer and mine differed substantially in size, he seemed equally fascinated with it. It was my working theory that Commander Tucker favored elasticity of tissue and firmness over size. I would have preferred to discuss the issue with him, but since he was still very uncomfortable with discussing intimate details, especially if they involved me, I decided to table this conversation until a later, more suitable time.

The increased blood flow to the chief engineer's corpora cavernosa suggested the onset of a penile erection, however, according to Doctor Phlox's preprogrammed reference data, it could at best have been partial and had subsided after two point one minutes, even though the commander was still working on minute details of the subject's mammary features.

-=/\=-

Approaching an estimated time of forty-eight point seven minutes, the Commander had practically finished the portrait with the notable exception that he had completely avoided any details of the ensign's pubic region. And he appeared reluctant to do so as the pen movements retained their accuracy, but were much more tentative and slow.

I noticed the indication of a beginning erection, which took substantially longer to subside, but the other vital data suggested general discomfort, at least this was the highest ranked automated diagnosis of the computer system, interpreting the brain's neurological activity. Earlier diagnostic runs, while he was painting the bust, had been interpreted by the heuristic algorithm as general comfort and moderate arousal.

The final authority to interpret the scans would lie with Doctor Phlox, of course, but I wondered why drawing ensign Sato's private parts caused apparent discomfort, rather than arousal. Perhaps the doctor could give me a psychologically sound explanation of this confusing fact. He certainly knew more about the human mind than I did.

 **Trip**

 _Someone's pretty curious,_ I thought to myself when I saw T'Pol's almost desperate attempts to keep the monitor display in sight while not breaking the pose. I concentrated hard on working out the delicate details of her perfect boobs, even zooming in to get the subtle nuances right, like the tiny shadows cast by her nipples due to the lighting.

It was the weirdest thing sitting here butt naked with a sensor tacked to my manhood, and even worse was knowing that she could not only tell that I was getting hard, but also _how painfully_ hard I was. But then this was not only down to the fact that I was currently drawing the most perfect body I had ever seen, some of my arousal definitely came from the fact that it hadn't escaped my notice that her nipples were standing out much more pronounced than earlier. She was getting turned on by modeling for me and that definitely fed back to my own excitement.

But for the moment I forced himself to concentrate on my drawing. Hoshi's picture had worked out quite well, so well in fact that she'd planted a kiss on me and asked to get a copy of it. When she had left I had a pretty good idea which tactical officer would soon find a pleasant surprise in his in-box.

I should have felt bad, being hard as a cannon made from Krupp steel, but at least I didn't feel guilty over it, like I had when drawing Hoshi. It was not like I didn't know every inch of Hoshi's body. We had had enough rolls in the hay when she was still a senior at the academy. It was the fact that she could still make me feel hot under my collar, despite the fact that I was falling head-over-heels for the unbelievable woman who was posing for me right that moment. It somehow made me feel guilty and despite the fact that T'Pol and I were in no relationship whatsoever, it still felt like betraying her when I got hard over drawing Hoshi's cute naked pussy.

But that of course meant I had to concentrate even harder on this drawing. I wouldn't have forgiven myself if T'Pol's portrait would not have come out absolutely perfect. So I ignored my raging hard-on and the guilty thoughts about Hoshi, and got on with the job.

 **T'Pol**

"Alright, T'Pol, I'm done," Commander Tucker announced from behind the privacy screen. From observing the monitoring data, I knew of course that he wasn't entirely truthful. The completion of the drawing had in fact been three point six minutes in the past, but according to the data he had waited for the remission of the penile erection, which had persisted for most of the time of working on my likeliness, before announcing the end of the experiment. I felt no need to make this moderate deception a matter of discussion as I could understand his motives and his further cooperation would also depend on the fact that he would not be too inconvenienced by the various experiments. I did of course not mention as much in my official publication, but the fact that I could arouse the commander this much merely by displaying my unclothed physique elicited a number of fairly agreeable but unfamiliar emotions and a substantial arousal in me. At the time I did not yet fully understand the reasons for this phenomenon, although a tentative theory was starting to form in my mind.

"You may now remove the sensors, Commander. Your assistance is greatly appreciated," I instructed, reluctant to leave the makeshift pedestal and therefore make it harder for him to admire my physique.

"It was a pleasure, T'Pol, literally," he replied and I could hear the pronounced undercurrent of amusement in his voice. But I could also sense that this time he had been entirely truthful.

"Are you willing to assist me in a preliminary assessment of the results?"

"Do I get a beer out of it?"

I did of course notice the humorous nature of his question. According to what I had learned about the behavioral pattern of Commander Tucker, he did indeed consent to assist, but used his amused remark to indicate that in future instances of conducting experiments he would not require, but certainly appreciate, a symbolic reward in the form of being served his favorite beverage. Fortuitously I had foreseen this situation and had procured a cooler and an appropriate supply of the refreshment.

"I suspect you have already noticed the cooler next to the bathroom door, Commander. Its content is at your free disposal. "

"Yeah, but self-service without permission is impolite," he replied still amused and stepped out from behind the privacy screen. The Commander was still completely unclothed and removed a bottle from the cooler.

I raised an intrigued eyebrow. I was of course quite familiar with the commander's build. Human males wore nothing but their undergarments in the decontamination chamber, and even then usually only the bottom half of them. But now I was able to observe that one last detail that had been missing so far.

What immediately drew my attention was the esthetically pleasingly defined gluteus maximus of the ship's chief engineer, which was emphasized when he bent down to open the cooler.

"You okay with that?" he asked, indicating along the length of his unclothed body. "It's a bit warm in here."

There was no logic in demanding that he dressed immediately, considering that I was still completely unclothed myself and the ambient temperature was indeed fairly high for a human. It was of course nothing that would need disclosure to outside parties, but I found the opportunity to study the Commander's build some more and in unconcealed detail a not at all unpleasant opportunity.

"I'm not really a scientist, Subcommander, but aren't your experiments so far a bit one-sided? I can only compare it to my own job, but when I install a bi-directional plasma pipe, I have to check that the stream is stable in _both directions_ ," he noted. His most perceptive nature reminded me that despite his sometimes questionable conduct, the Commander was an exceedingly intelligent individual, and as I may unofficially admit in this document, an exceedingly attractive one as well.

I wondered if his slightly unruly behavior and his accent were perhaps a carefully crafted misrepresentation of his true nature, in a bid to avoid that Starfleet would promote him to the rank of Captain and subsequently remove him from his post as the ship's chief engineer, a responsibility which he seemed to cherish a great deal.

"A reversal of the first experiment is planned for next week," I explained. "In fact, I was about to ask if you would consent to pose for a reversal of the first experiment."

His face was nearly split by a smile. Most fellow Vulcans would consider such an expression of emotion distasteful, but I had come to appreciate this expression and the Commander's laughter as two of the more endearing facets of his personality.

"Do I get to know if I'm planned as the 'averagely attractive' or the 'highly attractive' exhibit?" he asked me, undoubtedly in an attempt to goad me into revealing my own opinion of his physique, even before the experiment. And to my consternation, he succeeded.

I noticed an unfamiliar heat in my face. It was obvious that the Commander wanted to extort intimate information from me but, to use human vernacular, it was 'only fair' to provide desired details. The humans, who had been part of my experiments had willingly provided even most intimate thoughts and a scientific discourse was only possible if information were not withheld, a fact that many of my fellow Vulcans were still unwilling to accept.

"My evaluation is of course preliminary as I have yet to see the other male subjects for experiment 1-Beta, but based on data gathered in the decontamination chamber, I would be inclined to qualify your appearance as highly attractive. Your musculature is most agreeably, defined, especially the pattern that results from your _musculus rectus abdominis_ and its divisions by _intersectiones tendine_ and the _linea alba_."

"The what?" he asked, but his laughing was apparently caused by confusion and incredulity rather than amusement.

"If I may request your permission to touch you, I may point out the region I referred to," I replied and he nodded and walked over to me. He came to stand in front of me and I had to employ a few breathing techniques to prevent an outward manifestation of how strongly the sensation of his unclothed body so close to me affected my control.

"This is the _musculus rectus abdmoninis_ ," I explained at let my palm glide over his abdomen. I found it hard to keep my breathing to a normal pattern as the sensation of touching him while he was completely unclothed stirred powerful emotions in me, but I forced myself to concentrate on my explanation. With great reluctance I ended the physical touch.

"Means you like six-packs," he explained, obviously amused, and returned to his seat across the room. To my surprise I experienced an unexpected disappointment that he had not insisted on being allowed to _touch me_ in return.

"My of your relative attractiveness was of course not finished yet. My estimation so far only included your physique. For reasons of completeness it needs to be said that your personality plays a major part as well and – most important to a Vulcan female – for reasons I have not yet been able to determine, you are the only human male aboard whose scent does not affect me adversely. Even the female scents can become troublesome with the exception of ensign Sato."

"Maybe you've just gotten used to Hoshi and me," he said and his facial expression made it obvious to me that he was most pleased with my appraisal of his attractiveness. "We've been doing quite a lot of stuff together over the last year. I'd go as far as sayin' we've become friends. Feels like it to me at least."

"It is a theory worth considering," I answered and tried to emulate the specific undertone in my voice that was most successful in inducing amusement in Commander Tucker."


	5. Carissima Mater Mea

**T'POL**

 _Scientific Log, Subcommander T'Pol, 15th October 2152, Personal Supplement_

 _At this time all experiments are on hold as Commander Tucker is currently still in sickbay, where he recovers from the injuries he sustained while he was marooned on a desert planet with an initially hostile Arkonian. Quite surprisingly he managed to find an understanding with the alien and although he has sustained serious injuries, his first contact with an alien race was significantly more successful than some of Captain Archer's attempts._

 _On the matter of my research._

 _The Reversals of Experiments 1 and 2, respectively registered in the supplemental data as E-1B and E-2B have meanwhile been concluded using archived footage of the Commander's unclothed physique. Apparently, the ship's chief engineer is significantly less inhibited than many of his human crew mates and often removes all clothing when he is forced to use the decontamination chamber alone or in company of like-minded humans, like Lieutenant Hess._

 _The decontamination chambers are in fact supposed to be entered without clothing, but due to the limited space aboard the ship there was no option of installing separate chambers for males and females. Since not all human crew members share commander Tucker's lack of inhibitions the compromise of wearing underwear had been implemented, even if that made the procedure less effective._

 _Especially for experiment E-2B the commander's uninhibited nature proved fortuitous, as I suspect, had he been physically present, he would most likely have been less than impressed with the quality of art that ensign Sato and I had produced. Both of us do not possess the same talent for producing realistic paintings that the commander seems to have._

 _It is not a conclusion that I am inclined to add to my official documentation, but I find it increasingly difficult to separate the scientific elements from my personal desires. In fact, I am forced to admit that I am still looking for a method to style experiments 3 and 3B in a way that allows me to receive personal comfort while still being scientifically accurate. I will need to increase my meditation or perhaps I shall ask if Commander Tucker is willing to repeat some of the experiments. The pretense of needing extra data for statistical viability, if perhaps not entirely truthful, would be a suitable way to conceal my entirely selfish desires behind a believable scientific explanation._

 _Doctor Phlox has reminded me that so far my experiments have been entirely limited to sight and are therefore less than conclusive. He cited the sense of touch and the olfactory sense as equally if not even more important to human sexuality._

 _Since touch is a difficult topic for me as a Vulcan, I decided to limit my experimentation to Commander Tucker and Ensign Sato, as there are only three male crew members I would have been comfortable enough with to perform such an intimate routine. Captain Archer has declined to cooperate, citing that he would be unable to uphold the necessary professional distance between us if he were to be involved in such intimate endeavors. I believe that the attraction he felt towards me, and which became obvious during our first contact with the Kreetassians, has not entirely subsided._

 _Lieutenant Reed also does not wish to participate. I respect his explanation that he is not able to reconcile intimate contact with another female with his conscience in regard to his apparent attraction to Ensign Sato._

 _It was surprising to hear that the ship's communication officer would not have perceived the Lieutenant's participation as an act of betrayal, but she explained that it would take an inordinate amount of time to overcome the tactical officer's inhibitions. It took me a certain amount of time to decipher her metaphor of removing a lengthy wooden pole from the Lieutenant's rectum, mainly because it was entirely unrealistic in anatomical terms. Strangely however, Lieutenant Reed was not troubled by the thought that Ensign Sato would be participating in the experiment herself. I cannot discern a logical connection in Mr. Reed's decisions, but considering the intimacy of the topic, I chose to accept his reasoning without questioning it._

 _I have assembled and transmitted an encrypted message with early results of my studies to my esteemed mother. To say that our relations in recent years have been somewhat strained, would no doubt be classified as 'the understatement of the century' by Commander Tucker. I do however have the hope that our joint scientific interests will open a way to reconnect with my maternal ancestor._

 **Phlox**

Now that the Arkonian had been returned to his ship, I wondered if my Pyrinthian bat would have the time to devour its evening meal before the ship's science officer would appear for the umpteenth time to inquire about Commander Tucker's condition. I could not help but smile when I realized I had not even been able to finish the very thought before the inevitable happened.

The door swooshed open and the resident Vulcan marched in purposefully. Since she would now be more comfortable without the Arkonian nearby, I expected that she would need a plausible excuse to stay longer than during earlier visits and I had prepared one. I had also no doubt that the Commander would definitely prefer to have the burn ointment applied to his skin by the Subcommander's capable hands.

"Ah, excellent timing, if you would be willing to help me, Subcommander?" I said, pretending that she had come in at a fortuitous moment, as opposed to entirely foreseeably. "If you could take it upon yourself to apply this ointment to the Commander's torso? It would be a big help."

"Do I need a nasal inhibitor?"

I had to smile again, but tried to keep it to a rather modest one. She had not for a second debated whether or not to take on the task, merely inquiring about the technical details.

"It is odorless, Subcommander. Oh, and between neck and waist-line is sufficient," I added, just for the case that the two officers had progressed a little further in their research than I had been privy to through my assisting role in some of the experiments.

 **T'Pol**

Our conversation had been conducted with lowered voices, but so far my hearing had registered that Doctor Phlox had kept himself occupied at the opposite end of sickbay, most likely to give us the necessary privacy – a most thoughtful measure.

"Aw, that's so much better when you do that."

The Commander's appraisal of my technique was confirmed by his obvious contentment. His eyes were closed; his face was a mien of comfort despite the likely still painful and widespread sunburn of his skin.

"There is only one viable technique to apply ointment to another individual's skin, commander," I corrected him, but he opened his eyes and looked up to me.

"Lesson one, T'Pol: Touching a Human. It's not how you touch me, but that it is _you_ doing it. Wasn't that the idea behind your next experiment?"

"I have not yet finalized a conclusive experimentation setup. Do you have a proposal?"

"Sure," he replied and sat up. I indicated him to draw back his shoulders in order to make it easier for me to anoint his chest and abdomen.

"You need two blindfolds. I think Phlox should have some for patients with eye injuries. That way your results won't be influenced by visual clues. Then you and your test subject, I volunteer most enthusiastically of course, take turns explorin' each others body just by touch and smell. You can then compare it to the results of the visual experiments.

I did not comment on his 'enthusiastic volunteering', as that was in essence what I had hoped for the most.

"Since it involves smell, wouldn't that necessitate foregoing the application of deodorants?" I asked.

"Certainly does," he confirmed. "Obviously for us humans it means taking a shower right beforehand and you might want to lower the temperature to save us puny beings from sweating like pigs. Although, no, in fact perhaps we should even sweat a bit, just not too heavily."

I looked at him with a curiously raised eyebrow. I knew this would be enough for him to understand that I desired a more elaborate explanation.

"Remember when you told me that you don't know why my scent doesn't bother you?"

I answered in the affirmative.

"Humans are not too different from Vulcans in that regard. You might wanna ask Hoshi, but I think it is German, where the phrase for two people, who can't stand each other, is 'They can't stand each others smell', and in Standard we sometimes say 'The chemistry between them isn't right'."

"Two humans who have no reason for antipathy based on their visual appearance and character might be antagonized by their body odor?"

He nodded. "I'm just tryin' to remember my biology lessons."

I gave him the time to think, realizing that I was still rubbing my palm over his musculus rectus abdominis, or 'sixpack' as he had named that particular arrangement of muscle mass. Since the Commander was giving away no sign of discomfort, in fact he seemed to cherish it, I continued the movement despite a growing self-consciousness about my decision to maintain the overly intimate touch much longer than was necessary to finish the task the doctor had given me.

"Ah, got it," he said after a time of contemplation. "Everybody has a specific body odor and when it comes to intimate matters, we subconsciously look for a partner who smells differently, because close relatives smell similar and that way we can avoid inbreeding, even if we wouldn't know that we're close relatives. However, it can happen that you meet a partner who looks gorgeous, is funny to be with, but if you end up in bed the buck stops, because the smell isn't right."

"I understand," I said, but left unsaid that the Commander's explanation had left me thoroughly unsettled. I already knew that even when he was transpiring, his scent was agreeable to me, even arousing at times. But if I was to conduct the experiment the Commander suggested; what if a close olfactory exploration of _my body_ would lead to the finding that 'the chemistry was wrong' between the two of us? I found the very thought thoroughly unacceptable.

Unseemly frightened by the thought, I thanked the Commander for his help and under the pretense of having to document my findings, I hurriedly left sickbay.

-=/\=-

Somehow I could not shake the impression that Ensign Sato had seen through my reasons for inquiring about human intimate hygiene. At least I had now a quite logical explanation for my observation that all human females who had taken part in the first experiment had reduced their pubic hair to very minimal remnants, which they referred to as a 'landing strip', or had removed it altogether, like Ensign Sato and Lieutenant Hess.

It had been a thoroughly humiliating (and also fairly painful) process to have ensign Rao, a certified cosmetologist, apply a therapy called 'Brazilian Wax', but at least I was now no longer at a hygienic and aesthetic disadvantage to the human females aboard.

The worry about a possible olfactory incompatibility to Commander Tucker was still unsettling me, but at least I had done all there was to do and I could now concentrate on the answer from my mother that had arrived during my duty shift.

 _My esteemed daughter,_

 _I was positively surprised that you have decided to use your obvious adaption to life among so many humans for scientific purposes. However, I must admit I would have preferred that you had chosen a different facet of human interaction as your field of scientific endeavor. There are countless of non-satisfactory studies that you could have extended upon by using your extensive experience in interacting with our still immature allies._

 _Of course I do not wish to be accused of possessing a double standard, considering that I dedicated most of my professional career to the studies of our own intimate practices, but what possible purpose does it serve to research mating practices between two races that cannot naturally interbreed?_

 _I do have the hope that you might reconsider the scope of your research and to help you with that, I attach a recent study by Professor V'Narek. It deals with the concept of human romanticism, and I find it thoroughly unsatisfactory, full of unfounded and poorly researched theories. Perhaps you would consider basing a project upon his work?_

 _Greetings, your Mother._

It was the expected reply, but I had to admit that I had expected much stronger censure from my mother. In that regard the first communication had been a relative success and I decided to continue the exchange, but I also decided to challenge my mother's preconceptions.

 _My revered mother,_

 _It was agreeable to notice that the censure in your latest communication was fairly limited by your standards. However, I must respectfully disagree with your dismissal of my field of research. Even though I'm still fairly early in my research, I have already found several aspects of human intimate practices that would well apply to mating among our own kind, if one looks beyond the purpose of procreation._

 _Perhaps a practical demonstration would make this obvious to you. If my calculations are correct, the yearly drought and heat wave should soon arrive in our home region, and if you have not changed your customary behavior, you still have a predilection for disrobing in the midday heat instead of risking a heat stroke._

 _What I dismissed fervently in my youth due to a false sense of shame (and I paid for it with two substantial heat strokes) I have, somewhat belatedly I admit, found it to be a most invigorating activity. But the really enlightening discovery was that this sense of invigoration is even amplified if you find yourself under visual scrutiny of someone who is attracted to you._

 _So if you should still possess the temerity of your youth, I challenge you to 'forget' to raise the additional privacy screens the next time you tend to the Na'ru vines in a state of undress and therefore expose yourself to the risk of being seen by our widowed neighbor, Excellency V'Dor, who, as far as I remember, shares your strategy of coping with the oppressive heat at the height of summer._

 _You always made a conscious effort to suppress any outward sign of it, but to me as your daughter it is fairly obvious that both of you are attracted to each other. As a Vulcan you might expect that he is scandalized by being exposed to the sight of your unclothed physique, but I am confident enough in my findings that you might be faced with a result that you do_ _not expect and it will be a finding that resulted from studying our human allies, who are not as immature as you obviously_ _presume._

 _Respectfully, your daughter._

-=/\=-

 _220 year later, USS Maverick_

"Jeez, they really didn't skimp on the details, did they?" Mayumi Sato giggled, her face adorned with a slight blush from the very intimate reading material.

"Indeed," Commander T'Lara agreed. "However, at least we now have reliable accounts of our surnames. This Commander Tucker could perhaps be Charles Tucker III, although it would mean that both his son and grandson must have had their respective offspring at a fairly advanced age."

"Well, dad was one-hundred and twenty when I was born and I never met grandpa because he was already dead, despite the fact that he had lived to a hundred and seventy-seven. That's at least two centuries between the birth of Charles Tucker IV and my own," Lieutenant Commander Tucker supplied.

"Do you think these are the three women responsible for our existence?" Mary-Jane Sato asked. "He was obviously falling in love with whoever T'Pol was. He also seemed to have a thing for Hoshi Sato and we found a Vulcan named T'Pau."

"There are inconsistencies and uncertainties," T'Lara said. "First there is the existence of this Lieutenant Reed, who apparently shared a mutual attraction with Hoshi Sato. T'Pol of Vulcan was a fairly well-known scientist. She was born in 2088 and the last confirmed record of her is from the year 2270 according to the human time-scale. I recognize parts of these accounts. They quite obviously describe the genesis of a paper called 'On human intimate practices and their application to Vulcan society'. It is still mandatory reading for Vulcan exo-biologists to this very day."

"So we definitely know who _she_ is," Charles Tucker chipped in.

T'Lara nodded. "She would appear to be your second fore-mother, as your genetic profile does not match the female's DNA we harvested from the remains on the planet. T'Pol was part of humanities first deep space mission, but only a few years after the founding of the Federation she practically disappeared from historic records on Vulcan. It is my theory that her apparent disappearance means that she lived on this planet. Using your DNA we can try to find samples that would prove that either Charles Tucker III, Hoshi Sato or T'Pol of Vulcan have been here. The presence of their logs is not sufficiently conclusive evidence."


	6. Cause Every Time We Touch

**'Cause Every Time We Touch**

 **T'Pol**

 _Scientific Log, Subcommander T'Pol, October 22_ _nd_ _2152_

'Cause every time we touch  
I get this feeling  
And every time we kiss  
I swear I could fly  
Can't you feel my heart beat fast?  
I want this to last  
Need you by my side

'Cause every time we touch  
I feel ecstatic  
And every time we kiss  
I reach for the sky  
Can't you hear my heart beat so?  
I can't let you go  
Want you in my life.

 _Computer, stop playback._

 _This fragment of auditory disorder is an example of human music from more than one hundred fifty years ago. Ignoring the acoustic bedlam, instead concentrating on the meaning of the lyrics, it is easy to see that touch for humans is by no means the inconsequential and trivial matter that Vulcans have always assumed._

 _While casual touch, like human hand shakes, a custom born from their savage past, are customary, many humans do not wish to be touched by strangers any more than a Vulcan would. My perception of human touch has been somewhat influenced by the fact that Commander Tucker was always quick to initiate physical contact, mainly small gestures, like putting his hand on my back or shoulder when required to look at a readout while being positioned behind me._

 _With the help of Ensign Sato I have established that these frequent light contacts are signs of the Commander's desire to maintain a non-blood-related relationship called 'friendship'. It is, in some ways comparable to what Vulcans refer to as close acquaintances, but the human concept extends significantly. In fact for many humans friends may often be closer to them than family members, which is epitomized by a human saying that our communications officer explained to me._

 _You can can choose your friends, but not your family._

 _The next experiment will hopefully give me more insight into the importance of touch in intimate matters and human interaction in general._

-=/\=-

I called up the latest communication from my mother and for reasons beyond my understanding I felt a completely unseemly curiousness about whether or not my mother had accepted the challenge I had issued in my last transmission.

 _My revered, but also fairly unruly daughter,_

 _Due to the intimate topic of this communication, I suggest you transfer it to your secure storage as soon as you have read it._

 _Your latest communication was unsettling to say the least. I still remember (more vividly than I desire) how I had to rush you to the medical ward in the aftermath of a heat-stroke because you were too obstinate to 'ditch the frock'. I believe that is the somewhat amusing sounding way the human exchange students at the academy refer to the act of removing one's own clothing. I hope I have applied the idiom correctly._

 _However, learning that you now spend your time in a state of undress, not out of necessity, but for frivolous reasons like invigoration, has unsettled me to a degree. And then there is the little matter of your claim that the invigoration is amplified by being observed by someone who is attracted to you. Unless I have been misinformed, you are still the only Vulcan aboard the human vessel. Do I take that as an indication that one of the humans has become infatuated with you? I most impatiently expect your answer. (Even if allowing impatience to distract me might be somewhat unseemly of course)_

 _For lack of appropriate vernacular in our own language, I find myself again in need of lending a phrase from our human allies. You are 'wicked'. For reasons I cannot yet explain, I accepted your illogical challenge and our revered neighbor V'Dor was 'accidentally' exposed to my unclothed physique. It was the first time that I have seen someone salivating at the height of summer, when water preservation is what our bodies are evolutionary programmed for. While I admit that his attention (and obvious arousal) was a not at all disagreeable experience, was it necessary to risk a cardiovascular episode to befall our revered neighbor?_

 _You might be interested in the fact that we have spent quite a significant amount of time in each other's company lately and it appears that he might finally abandon his reluctance to seek out another mate. According to my preliminary theory his preferred candidate strikes a surprisingly close resemblance to me._

 _In this regard, your unseemly challenge might be forgiven, but I would wish to ask you to warn me in the future of those 'unexpected results' you spoke of. It appears that I may have triggered his pon-farr, or at least a so far unknown variant of it. The recent nights have been somewhat… spirited._

 _Your slightly exhausted, but quite content mother._

I regretted the fact that I could not allow myself to laugh. I had never known my mother as someone who possessed a sense of humor, but evidently I had been in error in that regard, or perhaps my maternal ancestor had simply been more open to learning from the human exchange students at the academy. After all, she had even started to borrow some of their vernacular, something she had never done before, despite the fact that she had been working with human exchange students for many years.

Of course the substantial shift in the so far distanced relations between my mother and neighbor V'Dor were not surprising. Both had lost their mates to skirmishes with the Andorians at a fairly young age and both had been interested in each other for many years. For reasons unknown to me, however, they had never started to negotiate a betrothal. Well, my mother's 'oversight' during her garden duties seemed to have resolved that illogical impasse quite effectively.

It was fortunate that Vulcans do not continually decline in appearance and strength at the same rate as other species so. At one hundred and twenty-nine years of age my mother was still an aesthetically fairly pleasing woman, if perhaps slightly portly, but I had no doubt that the newly-found male interest in her would motivate her to increase her efforts at personal fitness.

I sat down and assembled my reply. Even though the slight improvement in our relationship had been a fairly recent development, I realized how much I had missed contact with my own family.

 _My revered and hopefully still content mother,_

 _It gives me an entirely unseemly sensation of triumph to see that my theory worked exactly the way I had predicted. I attach two recordings from my personal supplement to the studies that I allow you to watch and evaluate. However, it is my hope that I do not need to remind you that these recordings are to be treated with utmost confidentiality. They will help you understand my motivation for issuing the challenge and which findings led to my prediction about the consequences of your actions._

 _I must admit that I cannot understand your misgivings about the fact that one of the humans has become attracted to me. I never thought of myself as aesthetically displeasing, so what exactly surprises you in regard to this matter? And as a fellow researcher in the matter of sexual relations, you must of course be aware that my research will eventually lead to practicing intercourse with a human partner. It might not be met with your approval, but I actually look forward to intimate contact with Commander Tucker for the simple reason that he does not only willingly assist with my studies. He also appears most interested in making the experience most agreeable for me, while other human males would most likely just seek their own satiety in disregard of my specific needs._

 _Regarding matters of your 'spirited' encounters with our neighbor, I can assure you that you have not triggered anything worse than his interest in you. The male pon-farr might have once been an evolutionary necessity, but I have discovered fairly early in my research that the desire to mate, for_ _both genders, is easily triggered by simple stimuli like the sight of an unclothed body as long as it is sufficiently pleasing to look at, so you might wish to avoid testing this theory on some of your more seasoned acquaintances. I would therefore advise that you do not expect V'Dor's intimate interest in you to subside as long as he occasionally gets exposed to the sight of your unclothed physique, which he most likely will, because you have no doubt discovered how unseemly, but agreeable a sensation it is to expose yourself for his benefit._

 _I shall now end my communication as I need to undress. Commander Tucker will arrive in a matter of minutes. In contrast to the captain's dinner, he is never late when I ask him to assist in my research._

 _Your 'wicked' daughter_

-=/\=-

 **Trip**

I grinned when she asked me to come in. Being met by a naked Vulcan female, who would put most human pinup models to shame, was something I could definitely get used to. She was standing with her back to me and I took a minute to enjoy the sight of her insanely shapely bottom. The fact that the temperatures of her quarters wouldn't have been out of place in the Gobi desert was a clear enough hint that she did not expect my clothing to stay on my frame for any length of time either. To preserve our little intimate secret, I pressed the lock button when the door had closed.

"Please stay were you are and disrobe," she instructed me calmly, still not turning around.

"Done," I reported, curious what this 'shy' spiel was all about. At that moment T'Pol turned around and I didn't even try to hide that I was checking her out. It was a good thing I hadn't yet started on the customary beer that went along with our experiments. I would have ejected it through my nose.

"I'll be damned!"


	7. Touch Me!

_A/N: The graphic parts have been stripped from this chapter. The adult version will soon come to AOE3_

 **Touch Me!**

 **T'Pol**

I resisted the urge to vocalize my relief with a sigh. If the removal of the only body hair that Vulcans had left below the head could cause such a strong positive reaction by visual stimulus alone, it made it more likely that the experiment would not end in the disappointment I was so unseemingly afraid of. In fact, I was quite convinced that the Commander would find a way to make the experience even more agreeable than I was expecting. He had done so for all experiments so far and I found myself realizing that I relied on this talent of his.

My thoughts went back to the early days of the ship's mission, specifically the time I had spent with the commander in the decontamination chamber after the away mission to Rigel X. Even though my relationship with the ship's chief engineer had still been of a mostly antagonistic nature at that time, I quite vividly remembered the intensity of the Commander's touch when he had explored my physique much more thoroughly than the application of Doctor Phlox's balm strictly required. Granted, I had not restricted my touch to the absolute minimum either.

Had he known what his gentle caressing of my ears had done to my composure? Had he noticed the obvious outward signs of my arousal?

For a moment there was a somewhat awkward silence though as we both inspected each other's physique and I was quite sure he was as eager to start the experiment as I was, even though I was not yet sure how the fact of being blindfolded would affect me. I had been deprived of my vision during the away mission to _Paan Mokar_ , and I did not remember the experience as a particularly pleasant one. As Vulcans we were taught from early childhood to remain in control whenever possible. Being deprived of a major sense was causing a strong sensation of helplessness.

To break the silence I decided to broach the subject of my cosmetic change to my body's appearance and its importance for human intimate practices. After all, this was still a scientific experiment, even though personal interests had grown steadily more important lately.

"I take it the decision to remove my pubic hair has influenced my appearance in a positive manner?" I asked and diverted my glance towards the cooler in which I had stored his prefered refreshments.

With satisfaction I noticed that he did not immediately collect a beverage for himself. Instead he took a bottle of wine from it, opened its screw-top and served me a drink in the plastic cup provided with the bottle. It was not my usual practice to consume alcoholic beverages, but during the first part of the experiment, conducted with Ensign Sato the day before, it had helped to make me less tense and overcome the mild discomfort of being touched in intimate places by the human female. To my surprize, after the initial discomfort had worn off, I had found the experience thoroughly enjoyable, despite my initial misgivings of engaging in intimate touch with an individuum of the same gender. My mother would probably censure me for the mere use of a frivolous word like 'enjoying somthing'.

Once he had seated himself with his own beverage, the Commander gave the answer I had been waiting for.

"Well, as you can see," he said, pointing at his crotch and his very erect member, showing no signs of discomfort or embarassement. "I'm preferring the smooth option myself, but you shouldn't take that as a scientific finding. There are people and whole cultures, who consider pubic hair erotic. In fact Hoshi is a bit unusual for a Japanese in that regard. They normally don't shave it off."

"So there are humans, who would regard the removal as detrimental to my appearance," I stated in search for clarification. When he confirmed my statement with a nod, I entered the information in my PADD for later inclusion into the research paper.

We settled into silence again, both consuming our beverages and inspecting each other's unclothed physiques. I was surprised that the Commander was still fully erect, but did not seem to be discomforted by this open manifestation of his arousal. Considering that I had effectively hoped for such an impact on him, I found it to be a quite satisfying sight. It aroused me to know that the sight of my unclothed body was able to arouse him so thoroughly.

"So, how did it go with Hoshi?" he inquired about the first part of the experiment, calmly drinking his refreshment.

"It appeared to have been a much more agreeable experience for the ensign than it was for me. I found the use of blindfolds rather… unsettling. Being deprived of a major sense is quite disconcerting. However, despite my initial reservations, I found it to be not quite as disagreeable as expected."

"The blindfolds are pretty important though," he argued. "How are you going to research the importance of touch and smell, if those inputs are overridden by the one sense which at least we humans rely on the most? On the other hand, if it makes you too uncomfortable, it may influence the results just as well. Maybe you shouldn't be doing that experiment at all."

"I believe I can manage, commander," I added hastily, hoping he would not notice how disagreeable the thought of abandoning this part of the experiment was to me. No matter how surprisingly agreeable the experiment had been with ensign Sato, the one I wanted to touch me more than anyone was sitting right across from me, still agreeably aroused by intensely observing my nude physique.

"Well then, Subcommander," he said with a smile. "Why don't we start 'managing'?"

I got up and to my surprise he fished something out of the pocket of his discarded uniform. Still wondering why there was a visible blush on his face, I recognized the item.

"Commander, we do not plan to engage in intercourse. I can see no need for condoms. And even if we would copulate, there would be no need as you cannot impregnate me. Vulcans and humans cannot interbreed without medical intervention."

"I know," he answered, still visibly abashed. "But when you… um… touch certain parts of me, there could be a messy surprise and I don't want to have stuff end up on your floor. It's been a while since I had… 'my tensions eased' as you like to put it."

I took the rubber item from him. "My quarters' floor is made of solid tritatium alloy, Commander, so unless your ejaculate is highly acidic, any mishap would merely lead to me asking you to clean up after yourself."

With an entirely unseemly sensation of triumph, I could see him blush some more. For reasons I could not explain, the sight of the commander's discolored face was not only agreeable, ensign Sato had used the adjective 'cute' to describe it, I found myself wishing to find a way to cause this reaction more often.

I stood behind my test subject and carefully fixed the blindfold to his head before doing so to myself. With a voice command I started the camera to record the experiment, as for obvious reasons I would not be able to take notes.

Carefully I let my finger tips glide up the Commander's neck and I started exploring his features while standing behind him. The first aspect I noticed was the clarity of his emotional state through the touch-telepathic contact. This had not been the case with Ensign Sato, leading me to the conclusion that the ship's chief engineer entered the experience completely open-minded… and highly aroused.

Of course, as much had been obvious before I had obstructed my vision, but now I could clearly sense the emotional state he was in, and it was a revelation. The level of affection I was faced with upon my touch was unexpected to say the least. I had been suspecting for some time that I was more than just another crew member to the Commander, but the confirmation was so strong I had to interrupt the touch and needed to take a step back, gasping when I realized what a profound effect this finding had on both of us.

We did not speak, both taking off the blind folds. Our respective breathing was hard and I realized that the Engineer's body was no longer the only one showing clear signs of arousal. I had no doubt that even the human's less sophisticated olfactory senses could pick up the substantial amount of pheromones I was giving off.

Unable to verbalize my emotions, I looked at him, waiting for the Commander to make a move – and thankfully he did.

 **Trip**

Suddenly the experiment didn't matter anymore. All I could think of was getting my hands on that magnificent creature before me. Her face had a green-ish hue – a reminder that Vulcans were physiologically different, but I didn't care. I had dreamed of this moment so many times and I was hell-bent on making it as fantastic for her as it felt to me.

This was no desperate boink in a swamp with a woman I didn't even particularly care for. The only thing on my mind was showing the curious Vulcan what it meant to be desired by a human. Since she seemed to be waiting on my reaction, I simply scooped her up and carried the naked godess to her bed.

"My bed sheets however, are not made of tritanium alloy," she reminded me with a husky voice.

"I'll pay for the laundry service," I answered with a mischievous and not at all apologetic grin and put her on the bed gently. Lying down next to her, I wasted no time and let my hand glide over her flat stomach until it found her breasts. Her closed eyes and the quite un-Vulcan-like moan of pleasure were clear indications that the touch was most welcome.

"Lesson one," I said, letting my breath brush along her cheeks. "This is the most important touch for a human."

I leaned in and gently put my lips to hers. It was obvious that she shad no clue what to do, but considering that the quivering female in my embrace was a member of a species who didn't practice such contact at all, she held her own quite well. T'Pol's arm snaked around my neck and she ruffled my hair while I literally took her breath away.

She was breathing heavily when we ended the kiss.

"A quite unsanitary practice," she said amid gasps for air.

"Just wanted to demonstrate, I won't repeat it if you don't like it," I promised and held her glance. Quite uncharacteristically, her eyes were glazed over and I had to remind himself that I was dealing with someone who had absolutely no clue about intimate contact and more importantly, I had absolutely no idea how a Vulcan reacted to touches that felt just right for a human.

"Since it is obviously part of the custom," she replied hastily, but instead of finishing the sentence, she pulled my head down to demand more of the unknown-to-her interaction.

I inhaled loudly through my nose to signal her to breathe through the nose. After all the goal was to make her feel good, not to suffocate the Vulcan in my arms. I noticed that she did just that, and if anything picking up my scent seemed to motivate her to intensify the returning of the gesture. Soon enough we were engaged in a lively tongue wrestling match and our hands started to explore each other's bodies.

-=/\=-

I had never seen or felt something this intense, and that had not even been anything like the real deal yet. After all it had only involved our tongues and fingers. It had taken almost fifteen minutes for T'Pol to regain anything that remotely resembled coherence. I had just finished wiping my own mess off her skin with a towel when I noticed that despite the glow of intimate satiety, T'Pol was strangely restless.

"You okay, darlin'?" I asked, concerned about her strange reaction. See seemed unable to focus at all. Her answer hit me like a ton of bricks.

"Commander, you need to call Doctor Phlox. I have lost my eyesight."


	8. Change Of Clothing

**Change Of Clothing**

 **Trip**

I was cradling the head of of a clearly upset T'Pol in my arms when the doctor entered her quarters. I couldn't quite suppress an annoyed grunt when the ship's medical officer came in, grinning like the cat that ate the canary and the rest of its family. Complete loss of vision was hardly something to be cheerful about.

Ignoring our state of undress, the doctor scanned T'Pol's head and his impossibly wide grin got even more extreme.

"Congratulations, Commander," he said to me, flipping his scanner shut. "You have managed something exceedingly rare, you have given a Vulcan female an orgasm. Quite an extra-ordinary achievement given their anatomy."

"Sorry doc, I must be missing the funny part," I disagreed with an annoyed tone in my voice. "If that means T'Pol's going blind, I wouldn't exactly call it an achievement, let alone one I should be commended for."

To my surprise the doctor took a seat and fixed us with an interested look.

"Commander, Subcommander, the loss of vision is only temporary. As you have obviously found out by now, the Vulcan female anatomy is not designed to make sexual contact as easily pleasurable as it is for females of other species. When a climax does happen, however, the effects are profound, as it temporaily overloads the neuro-pathways. What the Subcommander is experiencing is a simple neurological overload that will subside in a matter of a few hours."

"Talk about bein' short-shifted," I said and shook my head. I looked down at T'Pol who appeared somewhat calmer now, but was quite openly seeking my touch for reassurance, despite Phlox's presence. Although the doctor had seen both of us in the nude before, I covered T'Pol and myself with the duvet.

The doctor acknowledged the move with a grin.

"If you are uncomfortable with your condition, Subcommander, I can of course reverse the effects by injecting appropriate medication, but I can assure you there will be no lasting effects, no matter how often you repeat the experience. In fact, with experience the effects will be less severe."

"You mean..." I started to ask.

"Yes, Commander," the doctor continued, still sporting that impossibly wide grin. "You can compare it with human muscle tissue. If you overexert yourself, your muscles will ache, but regular exercise will enable them to become accustomed to the demand."

I couldn't help but grin after the doctor had left to make his way back to sickbay. Now _that_ was an idea I could get used to. How cool was that?

"I take it you will be readily available for 'training' my neurological system?" T'Pol remarked dryly and I laughed. She was definitely getting better at cracking jokes and she had almost read my mind.

"Of course Subcommander," I declared, mimicking her stilt-speak. "After all it was I who brought this disagreeable condition upon you."

Instead of answering she snuggled up a little closer to me, waiting for her vision to return.

 **T'Pol**

When I opened my eyes, the chronometer showed 0530, unusually late a time for me to wake up, but our activity the night before had not been exactly my usual way to spend the evening either. The fact that I _could_ see again meant that Doctor Phlox's diagnosis had been correct and the loss of vision was indeed temporary, albeit quite lengthy. What it also meant was that Commander Tucker and I had obviously fallen asleep and spent the night in my quarters, a thought that I did not find to be entirely disagreeable at all, especially since he still maintained close contact.

My head was resting in the crook of his shoulder and his arm was slung protectively around my torso, his hand cupping one of my buttocks. It appeared that Lieutenant Reed was not the only human, who harbored a fascination with my derrière. I made a mental note to consult Ensign Sato about that strange interest in a body part that served a vital if not particularly tasteful purpose.

I concentrated on his emotional state and through the close touch-telepathic contact I found nothing but contentment. He was sleeping contently, and I put my arm around his waist, determined to use the remaining ninety minutes of our rest to listen to his steady heartbeat, realizing that the soft, regular sound had an almost meditative effect on me. I could certainly use that as our first substantial intimate encounter had prevented me from meditating the night before.

-=/\=-

My mind was still conflicted and confused after Ensign Sato had taught me the basics of how human females dealt with sexual arousal when no intimate partner was available, a technique referred to by the term masturbation.

There had been several noteworthy discoveries. The first, and perhaps most surprising one was, that I had become aroused by watching Ensign Sato demonstrate the procedure. I had never become excited by the thought or sight of a female body. As a working theory I attributed that discovery to aftereffects of my most pleasurable encounter with Commander Tucker the night before.

Having made an appropriate adaption to the technique to account for my slightly different Vulcan anatomy I had succeeded in resolving my arousal by inducing sexual climax, but it had been lacking the intensity of the climax induced by Commander Tucker's stimulation. My vision had returned within ninety minutes after the event, much faster than after the experiment with the ship's chief engineer.

I had used the time to record my report. Due to ensign Sato's modification to my PADD's firmware, it was now operable without the need for vision. I had memorized the layout of the user interface and the communications officer had modified the software to emit different sounds when my searching fingertips were over a specific element. A most helpful addition to bridge the time necessary for my neural pathways to recover.

I had now two recordings of myself and Ensign Sato using the technique, but I suspected it would create some discomfort when I would ask Commander Tucker to demonstrate the technique for recording purposes. I would certainly need to allow him to consume two or three bottles of his favorite beverage and make sure I would expose my body sufficiently to facilitate the necessary arousal.

Ensign Sato had volunteered to 'put on a show' for the commander to arouse him during the procedure, but I had decided to decline. Another person in attendance would most likely just exacerbate the Commander Tucker's discomfort, and I was not sure if too much involvement of the young linguist in my experiments wouldn't have a detrimental effect to the burgeoning relationship between Lieutenant Reed and the ensign. So far the sight of my own unclothed body had been enough to arouse the Commander and as long as that was the case there was no need for more radical measures.

Now that my vision had recovered, I could work through the contents of my inbox. The first three entries were confirmations coming from Doctor Phlox that he had conducted the weekly checkup of Commander Tucker, Lieutenant Reed and Ensign Sato. I had decided to limit the pool of potential candidates for my experiments and all three officers had agreed to undergo the weekly certification of their intimate health. The fourth one was the long-awaited answer from my mother. Surprisingly it was encrypted with her own private key that I had left with her before being assigned to _Enterprise_.

 _My surprisingly perceptive daughter,_

 _Should you ever be able to break away from your duties long enough to pay a much anticipated visit to your home, you must be aware that I am no longer living on my own. Due to no small interference on your behalf, V'Dor and I have seen the logic of pursuing a betrothal. We are currently in the process of joining our estates and we have decided to leave his dwelling standing for the case that you would ever decide to return to our world or even consider taking a mate to provide the grandchildren that women of my age are usually privileged to tend to._

 _On the latter account I am of course not too hopeful. Our relations might have been strained in recent years, but I am still your mother and in that capacity I can easily determine that the attraction of this Commander Tucker is not entirely one-sided. Logic would dictate that I must now lecture you on the lack of such in that fact, but my logic fails me considering the material on your experiment 1B. You quite rightfully assigned the highest rating to his appearance, in fact I would most likely have rated his appearance even higher, but I urge you to consider how short-lived those humans are. Unlike ours their decline with age is fairly linear, which means in ten to fifteen years your commander might have lost most of the attributes that make him such a fascinating specimen at this time._

 _Attached to this communication you shall find my personal encryption key to apply to further communications. Your research is obviously quite thorough and you will soon venture into topics that the authorities do not necessarily need to be made aware of. Before you start experimenting with physical intimate concepts, I urge you to consult with your doctor Phlox. I doubt any of the humans would possess the necessary finesse, much less the patience, to induce sexual climax, but should it happen, there are physiological aspects to be considered._

 _On behalf of your insinuation that I would further expose myself to V'Dor, I have the disagreeable duty to admit that you were right. It does indeed provide a sort of illicit satisfaction to observe his fascination with my physique. The annual heat wave has already passed, so continuing to divest myself of all clothing would be too obvious a gesture, however I have found that meditating in a partial state of undress is unexpectedly effective in providing the necessary comfort to deal with my emotions while keeping my new housemate 'on his toes' as the humans at the academy say._

 _V'Dor has admitted that the atmosphere of a darkened room, only lit by a meditation candle with me meditating with a bare torso stirs much stronger emotions than seeing me completely unclothed in the garden. To facilitate that I procured a type of garment called 'Leggins' from one of the shops in the human compound. So if you have access to such apparel it might be worthwhile to test the theory on your Commander Tucker._

 _Unfortunately the garment does not lend itself to hiding any deficiencies of one's body. I doubt you will experience any problems in that regard, however I have noticed to my chagrin that age and general lack of exercise has saddled me with additional weight. If you have any helpful information on exercises to facilitate expedient weight loss do not hesitate to include it in your next communication._

 _Your fairly invigorated mother._

I raised an interested eyebrow, wondering if my mother was suffering from a condition I had so far only seen in human females – the irrational perception of being overweight. Of course my mother's physique had become somewhat more robust with age, but T'Les' appearance could easily rival that of females four decades her junior. However, I made a mental note to consult doctor Phlox on the matter of weight loss and muscle training for Vulcans.

Before starting to assemble my reply to my mother I researched the garment called 'Leggins' and to my satisfaction I noticed it was a type of pants I had seen being worn by many females in the ship's gym, which meant the quarter master would surely be able to provide such clothing. I started to assemble my reply.

 _My revered and entirely predictable mother,_

 _Without wishing to sound patronizing, may I remind you that I had suggested pursuing a new betrothal as early as a decade ago? It is most agreeable to hear that my interference has helped you in that regard and I am convinced your chosen mate can see the agreeable aspects of my suggestion as well._

 _On the matter of your weight loss I shall consult with doctor Phlox, however I am convinced that nominal weight is not your problem. What you need to do is rebuilding muscle mass in your thighs and the gluteus maximus. I am sure as a scientist you shall be able to devise exercises to train these muscle groups._

 _I am grateful for your presence of mind to provide your encryption key as I would otherwise have foregone sharing my latest research with you. I rely upon your utmost discretion when listening or viewing the various recordings. They will hopefully challenge your misconception about the finesse of humans, as you will see that Commander Tucker was quite able to induce what you deemed improbable and as you will also see that I have found out about the temporary debilitating effects of sexual climax on my own. I have discovered that the length of after-effects is quite effective in evaluating the intensity and qualiry of the experience. Unfortunately most humans do not seem to be too fond of such instantaneous quantification of their skills._

 _Regarding your observation that the Commander's attraction is reciprocated, I see no reason to deny the fact. However I shall hold off informing him of the fact as I assume it would influence my research if we were to engage in an intimate relationship. I find that necessity quite disagreeable however, as I have realized that sharing the bed with him (for the purpose of sleeping, mother) made sleep significantly more restful. Did you know that listening to a human's heartbeat has a meditative effect?_

 _I shall now end this transmission as I find myself impatient to test your suggestion to improve my meditation._

 _Your busy daughter._

-=/\=-

It was becoming a recurrent pattern that I experienced impatience. Commander Tucker would of course be punctual as always, but for some illogical reason time seemed to pass slower the nearer it came to the time of his arrival.

When the arranged sequence of door bell buzzes sounded, I asked him to enter, trying to appear much calmer than I realistically was. I closed my eyes and waited for the Commander's reaction. I could hear that he closed and locked the door, but he did not offer an immediate verbal reaction, which caused a moment of impatience and insecurity I had not expected.

What my sense of smell _did_ notice however was the almost explosive emission of pheromones. Apparently the setup was most successful. Finally a verbal confirmation came, if perhaps somewhat vulagar and uncouth.

"I'll be damned!"


	9. Educational Viewing

**Educational Viewing**

 **T'Pol**

I turned off the camera on my way back from the bathroom. With a wet cloth I wiped away the 'mess' Commander Tucker had made on the floor during the recording. My test subject was still sitting on the desk chair, leaning back with closed eyes, his semi-erect phallus still in the grip of his right hand. Although it appeared to have been somewhat pleasurable by the look of it, I could easily sense that the procedure had been highly embarrassing for the chief engineer. Apparently masturbation was an extremely private undertaking for humans and performing it for an audience or even recording had been most discomforting for both Ensign Sato and Commander Tucker. The ship's communications officer had volunteered for a similar recording.

I disposed of the stained cloth into the laundry chute and started cleaning the Commander's phallus and hands with the second cloth. Somewhat wide-eyed in surprise he accepted my ministrations. When I was finished I leaned in and exchanged a kiss with the Commander to express my gratitude for his cooperation. This gesture appeared to lessen his discomfort and the smile returned to his features as he pulled his underpants back up. Having seen that I wore partial clothing, he had opted to leave his blue underpants on as well.

"As much as I love the reward, I hope I don't have to do that again," he said while I put the second cloth in the laundry chute as well. I served him another helping of his favorite beverage. It was already the forth bottle, but the Commander did not appear inebriated.

"I regret the discomfort," I apologized. "However, I am afraid some of the upcoming experiments might have the potential to be uncomfortable."

"What do you have in mind?" he asked and from the way he squinted his eyes I could sense that he was suspicious of what experiments might yet be coming.

I arranged my meditation cushions on the wall at the back of my bunk until the arrangement looked vaguely like a sofa, as humans called such a piece of furniture. I sat down and signaled the commander that I would wish him to join me.

"Nice touch on the Yoga pants by the way," he said while taking a seat next to me, seemingly forgetting to continue seeking an answer to his prior question. "This is much more sexy than being completely naked."

"My mother insinuated the same. Can you explain the difference?"

"Well, look T'Pol," he opened and my eyebrow went up as I did not readily understand why cupping and massaging my right breast was part of the explanation. "Our primary sexual organs, as you like to call them, are made to _feel_ good. But if you look at the first experiment; neither any of the guys nor any of the girls has written that the thing between our legs was the most attractive part."

I confirmed his assessment with a look at my PADD while entering the new information. "So I take it that baring one's genitalia is considered unattractive?"

He shook his head. "Not unattractive per sé. Take your meditation for instance. If you had done that completely naked it wouldn't have been a very modest picture. You sitting there topless in yoga pants looks sexy. You sitting there presenting a direct view straight at pleasure central looks naughty and a bit obvious, as if to say 'here, make that feel good'. That make sense?"

I nodded my understanding and continued writing down the new information, but I kept getting distracted by the Commander's fascination with various parts of my anatomy. Apparently humans even applied a meaning to various states of undress. While many of their mating customs appeared quite pleasurable, I did wonder how a species had survived that long by possessing such complex customs regarding the biological process of procreation. On second thought however, I noticed that this very topic had never come up.

"Commander, I noticed that the topic of procreation is almost never mentioned in connection with sexual relations. Considering that this is the main purpose of engaging in intercourse, I find this quite confusing."

He smiled, consuming his beverage. "That, dear Subcommander is because procreation _isn't_ the main purpose of havin' sex, at least not for humans. It took until two hundred years ago before we got our heads around that. It wasn't called the sexual revolution for nothing. Basically there are three types of sex. First, for procreation obviously. Second, there is makin' love, that's what we call having sex with someone you love as a way to show that. And then there's casual sex, where the only point is to get pleasure and relax."

"So my theory that it relieves tension is not as wrong as your often provocative remarks make it appear?"

"No, it's not," he admitted. "In fact it's a great tension relief."

"Why did you mock my comments then?" I asked calmly, without too much reproach.

"Because it's not as easy as just saying 'have sex' when someone is tense," the engineer replied. "Sex is literally a very intimate thing and even if it is casual it requires a lot of trust. Would you be sitting like that in your quarters with, let's say, Travis?"

"Most likely not," I admitted.

"Back then before Risa you just assumed that we could run down there and bang everything in a skirt, but that's not how it works. I tend to think that we're comfortable enough with each other that we could even tackle some of the 'advanced experiments', but that wouldn't have been true a year ago, and believe it or not, it would have been I who would have declined."

"It would appear then that, while effective at easing tension, sexual relations are rather ineffective at that because their complex requirements."

"Now you got it," he said with a grin.

 **Trip**

When I returned from the bathroom after getting rid of some of the previously drunk beers, I stopped in the door. Leaning against the door sill, I observed T'Pol with a small smile on my face. Even though the absence of most of our clothing had become sort of customary lately, the sight of T'Pol in nothing but a pair of tight yoga pants was still as spectacular as the first time I had seen her topless. Looking at the spectacular bust of the ship's science officer was not in danger of getting old any time soon.

Apparently she noticed my prolonged absence from her side on the makeshift sofa atop her bunk. When she saw my appreciative looks, T'Pol put the PADD aside, raised her eyebrow as she always did when she was amused, and then she leaned back to give me an unobstructed view at her physique.

"You're getting better at that," I noted with a chuckle and rejoined her on the bunk. "Or were you just done entering your data?"

"No, my gesture was deliberate. You are mostly fascinated with my bust and my derrière, so it was logical to afford you an unobstructed look to increase your pleasure. I the case of my posterior that was not possible of course as I'm currently sitting on it."

"Sounds a bit too analytical," I said with a chuckle. "But in essence you're starting to get the hang of it."

"I'm afraid I will not be able to use the colorful vernacular that humans apply to various aspects of intimate customs," she explained in reference to my accusation of being too analytical.

"It was not meant to be criticism, T'Pol. The whole point of the exercise is that we are genuinely ourselves during intimate encounters. Nothing is more of a turn off than knowing that your partner is play-acting."

She nodded her understanding.

"Commander I have procured educational material on the matter and I wish to review it with you as I believe it is time to start conducting 'advanced experiments' as you called it."

"Sex Ed films?" I asked, slightly amused, but instead of answering she started the recording on her view-screen on the opposite side of her cabin. The timing was more than unfortunate as I had just taken a swig from his beer and the drink was explosively expelled through my nose. I coughed helplessly for a while before looking at T'Pol in dumbfounded bewilderment.

"Educational, T'Pol? You call 'Debbie does the Alpha Quadrant' _educational_?"

"It does not represent viable sexual techniques?" she asked.

"Well, yes and no," I evaded a straight answer as I did not have one at hand that didn't sound weird. "Right, tell you what, let's watch the first scene and we'll pick it apart, okay?"

We watched the ridiculous intro and the fictional space ship's captain came out of a turbo lift to witness a rather lively scene on on the bridge. I watched for a while and started blushing when, despite the hilariously bad quality of the flick, a certain physical reaction started, especially as the scene concentrated on a 'Vulcan' science officer and the chief engineer, who had apparently been illicitly conceived by the elephant man banging a steroids factory.

T'Pol stopped the recording and although she glanced down at my crotch for a moment, she didn't offer any comment on my erection.

"So, see any logical flaws in that one?" I asked, ignoring my abashment. Going over to the cooler to exchange my empty bottle for a new one gave him time to collect myself and let my erection go down.

"I take it the naming of the fictional space ship – _UES Gangbang_ – has a sexual connotation?" she asked dryly. "And the continuity of the introductory narration was fairly lacking in logic. Why would a human crew venture into space to seek for new species 'to bone' when they are obviously quite well equipped to entertain themselves among their own kind or with poorly depicted fictional Vulcans?"

"Well, first of all, yes, gangbang definitely has a sexual connotation. In fact, if we make it far enough into the recording without laughing ourselves to death about the ridiculousness of it, you'll probably get to see one. And don't expect any consistent story-line. The whole point of a pornographic film is to show people having sex in all possible and impossible variants."

"So the point is to superficially arouse the viewer," she stated.

"With the emphasis on superficial," I agreed and pointed at my crotch. "I obviously showed a reaction, but as soon as the 'action' stopped, it ended. I had had a longer erection when drawing you and that didn't involve any naughty action at all. Any other flaws you saw?"

"The woman is obviously not a true Vulcan. She is anatomically incorrect."

"She's as fake a hooker's smile. They simply tacked two fake ears on a woman with equally fake breasts. I doubt that you'd find any Vulcan who has such a monstrous set of jugs naturally."

"My bust is considered fairly large by Vulcan standards," she said looking down at her chest for comparison. "I take that to mean her bust has been surgically enhanced? Does that apply to the male's genitalia as well?"

"I'm in the same boat as you," I confirmed. "I'm considered well endowed, but that thing is freak. She can barely get it into her mouth without suffering lockjaw. I don't think he's been 'enhanced', they simply searched for an actor with a genetic defect that causes an over-sized penis. Now the woman, she's definitely had a boob job or probably more like a dozen. They could probably find a woman with those things in natural size, but first she'd be looking like Jabba the Hut, since human breasts mainly consist of fatty tissue, and the things would be hanging around her knees.

"If you think back to the first experiment – Anna is about as stacked as human women can get without being ridiculously fat and she's going to pay for it when she gets older, as the tissue will slacken with age. Trust me, my XO is _not_ _looking forward_ to her fortieth birthday. "

"What about the sexual technique itself?" T'Pol asked, entering my explanation into her PADD.

"Well, for obvious reasons it's called oral sex. You'll see that a lot in those films, which suggests all women like that or it is a standard technique, but that's not true. First of all, it's a one-way street. It's sole purpose is to pleasure the man, so if anything, a woman performs that to specifically pleasure her partner, she doesn't get much out of it herself except a money shot."

"What is a money shot?"

"Well, the guy will eventually climax and his payload has to go somewhere. Either the woman takes it down her throat and swallows the stuff or she'll have it splattered all over her face and chest, which you'll see quite often in those types of movies. You'll have to ask Hoshi about a female point of view on that one, but I hazard a guess that most women will just swallow the stuff instead of being messed up, even though I've been told the taste leaves something to be desired."

"Would a female's desire to please truly be that great to perform this one-sided technique, especially considering that the conclusion seems fairly unsatisfactory from a female point of view?"

I scratched the side of my head, weighing up my answer.

"As I said, those films make it look as if every woman likes doing that, and it's not true. Not every woman would use that tenchnique in the first place. Of those that do, many do it because they want to please their partner, and there is an equally one-sided oral technique for the man to perform on the woman, so it can be a fair trade between partners. Some also use it as a practical measure. Even after only twenty-four hours a human male will climax quite quickly the first time, so if the women want their partner to hold out a bit longer, they use a blowjob, that's the more common term for it, to get the first one, the quick climax, out of the way. And while he recovers for the next round, the man can return the favor."

"Thank you for the explanation, commander," she said, putting her PADD away and restarted the movie.

"You can use the timing system to skip to the next scene," I advised her. "Trust me, you won't miss much of the plot."

She didn't answer, instead she intently observed the goings-on on the screen. When the scene had ended with the guy splattering a rather unrealistically huge load all over the fake Vulcan, she paused the recording and turned around to face me. Without an explanation she leaned in and started sniffing along my torso.

"Remove your remaining clothing please, commander."

With some bewilderment I followed her 'order', and she pushed down her yoga pants as well.

"Is that going to be what it looks like, subcommander?"

"You are correct. I _could_ ask Ensign Sato for her opinion," she explained dead-pan while re-aligning the camera to the bunk. "Or I could try the technique myself. And if you are familiar with it, I would like to ask for a demonstration of the reciprocal technique as well."

It was the answer I had secretly hoped for, but I still looked at her somewhat flabbergasted when the naked Vulcan knelt down in front of the bunk and started stroking my semi-erect organ until I was ready for action.

"According to your explanation and the fact that you have climaxed once already, I do have some time to practice the technique, do I not?" she asked dryly and went to work.

"I'll be damned. That will entirely depend on your technique darlin'," I groaned and flopped back onto the bunk.


End file.
